University of Salford Occupational Therapy Education Blog

image: University of Salford and Peel Park

Today I had to ask a question on a blog comment. I found it difficult to think of what I wanted to do at first and read a number of blog posts before returning to a post I had previously commented on and had a response from the blog author Sarah who is also taking the challenge. The post was a reflection on Day 2's task and I had written that I was enjoying her blog as a fellow health care professional (Sarah is a midwife in New Zealand). Further comments were added by others that spoke of the need to be more discussional and emotive in the response to blogs in order to generate real debate and stop the "love fest". My comment left for today's task agreed with the need to become more critical - but my question focused on why - if it was imperative that we engage in clear and honest discussion - that those same commenters felt the need to post anonymously - and raised the question of issues of netiquette when commenting on blog posts! I wait to see what - if any- response is generated.
This has a similar flavour to a post by one of our team (another Sarah) last year which looked at boundaries of sharing personal information. You may be interested to have another look at this?
What do you think? Do you think we should clearly own what we are writing on blogs - or does a level of anonymity allow for more frank and open debate. I would be interested to know what you think.

This blog aims to share and discuss issues surrounding education and development for occupational therapists.

Leaving comments on our blog

• We have been "blogging" for almost a year now. As you enter the blog the most recent post will be on the page. On the right hand side of the page you will see a section titled "blog archive". In here you will find all our posts. Feel free to click on these - we have tried to make the titles reflect the content to make it easier to navigate through the posts.
• There is also a section on the right entitled "Hot Topics on the blog" these are posts that are currently generating discussions that you may want to read and maybe engage with.
  
• Feedback or comments are really important to us so feel free to say anything from a short 'I agree' or longer 'I totally disagree" etc'. and to add your own experiences and reflections
  
• Look at the end of a post and click onto the small 'comment' label. A new window will open where you can read other comments as well as leave your own comment. Write what you want to say in the box. Be anonymous if you wish.
• You do not have to have a 'blogger' account to be able to comment on this blog.
• Once you are happy with what you have written, click onto 'publish'.
• If you want your comment to be private, please email us.
  
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• Finally, any comments people leave should be reasonably civil and productive. We reserve the right to moderate or remove comments if there's a problem, although we're pleased to say that there's never been an issue. .

with thanks to Michelle for her blog post on comments policy
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Those of you who are regular readers of our blogs will know that we have been busy developing an MSc Advanced Occupational Therapy to be delivered totally online. In order for this to happen many of us have been engaging in web 2.0 applications to facilitate our programme development but also to engage in learning experiences that we will be asking our students to undertake. To this end I have enrolled on an online programme which week by week has introduced me to some extremely interesting and useful tools for both learning and social networking.
It has become clear to me that the common theme underpinning all of these is the need to know if anyone is out there and the importance of acknowledging each other. Engaging in an online community can only really be effective if you know there is a community out there. Under usual circumstances we engage with others through gestures, tone of voice - or by presence (or indeed absence). On line these things cannot be noted - therefore it is extremely hard to know if anyone is listening, agreeing or indeed disagreeing. We have had over 2000 readers of our blog posts - yet very few of you have left a trace. That first step can be daunting - make a comment -write what you feel - it doesn't have to change the world, it doesn't have be an essay - just let us know you're out there. Click on "comment" at the end of this (or any other) post and up will pop a window for you to type in your comment. Give it a go - it may be the first step of a whole new learning experience for you - and if all else fails - it can be evidence of an aspect of your CPD to demonstrate engagement in discussion with peers both nationally and internationally!!!
Happy commenting...